Pedestrians walk past destroyed containers at La Guaira port after explosions were heard in Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.Matias Delacroix/AP
Washington, January 4, 2026 — The Trump administration’s claim of a military campaign in Venezuela aimed at curbing fentanyl trafficking is facing criticism, even from within the Republican party. The assertion that Venezuela is a key source of the deadly opioid is being challenged as the administration pursues military action.
Republican Rift Over Venezuela Strategy
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Lawmakers question the focus on Venezuela while Mexico remains the primary source of fentanyl.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for targeting Mexico instead of Venezuela.
- The Drug Enforcement Administration identifies Mexico as the main producer and exporter of fentanyl.
- The UN considers Venezuela a minor transit point for cocaine, not fentanyl.
- Cuts to addiction treatment programs raise questions about the administration’s priorities.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who is resigning from Congress on Monday following a split from Trump, publicly questioned the administration’s strategy on Sunday. “The majority of American fentanyl overdoses and deaths come from Mexico. Those are the Mexican cartels that are killing Americans,” Greene told NBC’s Meet the Press. “If this was really about narco-terrorists and about protecting Americans from cartels and drugs being brought into America, the Trump administration would be attacking the Mexican cartels.”
Greene drew parallels between the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq, labeling it “the same Washington playbook” that benefits “big corporations, the banks, and the oil executives.”
Fentanyl’s True Origins
Data from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment confirms that Mexico is the primary source of fentanyl entering the United States, with China as a leading manufacturer. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2025 World Drug Report only identifies Venezuela as a minor transit center for cocaine.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) echoed these concerns on Sunday, tweeting, “Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”
However, Vice President JD Vance defended the administration’s actions, arguing that disrupting cocaine trafficking in Venezuela would weaken cartels overall. “If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall,” Vance posted on X. “Also, cocaine is bad too!”
Vance conceded Mexico’s significant role in the fentanyl crisis and acknowledged it as a factor in Trump’s decision to close the border, while also weakly maintaining a link to Venezuela— “There is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was).”
Beyond the Headlines: A Focus on Treatment?
Critics argue that focusing on Venezuela distracts from a more comprehensive approach to the opioid crisis. As previously reported, the Trump administration has been criticized for using the rhetoric of combating fentanyl to justify tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, and for designating cartels as terrorist organizations.
The administration is simultaneously slashing funding for state and federal addiction treatment and overdose prevention programs. These cuts, as noted in a report from April, are likely to exacerbate the crisis.
Since then, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump, includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, which covers approximately half of all non-elderly adults with opioid use disorder. Subsidies for health care under the Affordable Care Act have also lapsed, more than doubling average health insurance premiums.
The growing dissent suggests that Trump’s intervention in Venezuela may be driven by factors beyond drug interdiction, and even members of his own party are beginning to question the rationale.
